Video: Senator Graham Exposes Military Leaders On Benghazi Response

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South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham grilled Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and Joint Chiefs General Dempsey on the President’s involvement, or lack thereof.

Apparently, Senior Military Leaders only spoke with the President one time for a period of about 30 minutes. According to this Senate testimony, the President never made further inquiry about the status of the Consulate, or State Department personnel, until after the fact.

Graham also exposed the fact that there was no military response whatsoever during the 7-8 hour siege of the Consulate in Benghazi.

This is an extremely important piece of the Benghazi puzzle, and the senator should be applauded for bringing this information out.

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China Eclipses U.S. as Biggest Trading Nation Measured in Goods

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China surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s biggest trading nation last year as measured by the sum of exports and imports of goods, official figures from both countries show.

U.S. exports and imports of goods last year totaled $3.82 trillion, the U.S. Commerce Department said last week. China’s customs administration reported last month that the country’s trade in goods in 2012 amounted to $3.87 trillion.

China’s growing influence in global commerce threatens to disrupt regional trading blocs as it becomes the most important commercial partner for some countries. Germany may export twice as much to China by the end of the decade as it does to France, estimated Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Jim O’Neill.

“For so many countries around the world, China is becoming rapidly the most important bilateral trade partner,” O’Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs’s asset management division and the economist who bound Brazil to Russia, India and China to form the BRIC investing strategy, said in a telephone interview. “At this kind of pace by the end of the decade many European countries will be doing more individual trade with China than with bilateral partners in Europe.”

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Pelosi: Federal Government Doesn’t Have A Spending Problem

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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Sunday downplayed concerns about federal spending levels, arguing that Republicans’ laserlike focus on budget cuts is misplaced.

“It isn’t as much a spending problem as it is priorities,” Mrs. Pelosi, California Democrat, said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“It is almost a false argument to say that we have a spending problem.” she added.

Mrs. Pelosi, a former House speaker, also warned against the looming sequester cuts, saying Congress must work with the White House to avoid those reductions, calling them “something that should be out of the question.”

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Happy-Face Statism

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Photo Credit: Dancing TunaFor the last decade, some social scientists have been arguing that “happiness measurements” should replace or supplement established economic standards to judge a society’s “success.” Many environmentalists also support the idea as a way of putting lipstick on policies that could slow down economic growth. And now, the idea is deemed ready to leave the ivory tower for implementation as government policy.

One can understand the appeal for the ruling elite and their camp followers of consultants and lobbyists. If government assumes the power to promote happiness, officials would have to “consult with experts” to figure out criteria by which a society’s “gross happiness index” could be measured. (As we will see below, that process has already started.) Once these standards were determined, a new bureaucracy would have to be established—let’s call it HAA, the Happiness Advancement Administration—to promote happiness goals and enforce happiness regulations. One could even imagine a presidential debate, in which the challenger looks into the camera and earnestly asks, “Has your government made you happier today than you were four years ago?”

We have already started down Happiness Road. Bhutan recently established a National Happiness Commission, chaired by the prime minster, which must give all legislation a happiness seal of approval before it can become law.

One could shrug off Bhutan’s law as a consequence of the altitude. But the United Nations General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution in 2011 calling on all member states to promulgate national standards of happiness. The resolution states that “gross domestic product . . . does not adequately reflect the happiness and well-being of people in a country” and that “sustainable development” and a “more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth” will best encourage the “happiness and well-being of all peoples.” Sounds like a prescription for wealth redistribution and rationalizing reduced prosperity to me.

An article published in National Affairs reported that “the twenty-seven nations of the European Union also plan to move ‘beyond GDP,’ complementing their official measures of economic output with measures of well-being drawn from happiness literature.” What better way to divert our attention from declining standards of living than to have government and the media trumpet proud claims of improved collective happiness?

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House Oversight Panel Opens Bipartisan Probe On FOIA Compliance

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Photo Credit: APHouse Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and ranking minority member Elijah Cummings have opened what could be the most comprehensive congressional review in three decades of executive branch compliance with the Freedom of Information Act.

Issa is a California Republican, Cummings a Maryland Democrat. Such joint legislative efforts are rare on Capitol Hill, thanks in part to the hyper-partisan atmosphere found in Congress these days.

In a six-page, single-spaced letter dispatched earlier this week, Issa and Cummings posed multiple questions to Melanie Ann Pustay, director of the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy.

Pustay’s office is tasked with enforcing compliance among executive branch departments and agencies with the FOIA.

President Obama issued an FOIA memorandum on his first day in office in which he directed federal officials that the law “should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails.”

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California Lacks Doctors To Meet Demand Of National Healthcare Law

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Photo Credit: Saul Loeb Lawmakers are working on proposals that would enable physician assistants, nurse practitioners, optometrists and pharmacists to diagnose, treat and manage some illnesses.

As the state moves to expand healthcare coverage to millions of Californians under President Obama’s healthcare law, it faces a major obstacle: There aren’t enough doctors to treat a crush of newly insured patients. Some lawmakers want to fill the gap by redefining who can provide healthcare.

They are working on proposals that would allow physician assistants to treat more patients and nurse practitioners to set up independent practices. Pharmacists and optometrists could act as primary care providers, diagnosing and managing some chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and high-blood pressure.

“We’re going to be mandating that every single person in this state have insurance,” said state Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), chairman of the Senate Health Committee and leader of the effort to expand professional boundaries. “What good is it if they are going to have a health insurance card but no access to doctors?”

Hernandez’s proposed changes, which would dramatically shake up the medical establishment in California, have set off a turf war with physicians that could contribute to the success or failure of the federal Affordable Care Act in California.

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Sen. Inhofe Threatens Filibuster To Block Hagel

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Photo Credit: roberthuffstutter Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) on Sunday threatened to filibuster former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.)’s nomination for Defense secretary, if necessary to prevent his confirmation.

“I want a 60-vote margin and you don’t have to filibuster to get that,” said Inhofe in an interview on Fox News. “I would threaten to cause a 60-vote margin. If it took a filibuster, I’d do it that way.”

Inhofe, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that requiring 60 votes to confirm nominees was common and dismissed suggestions that GOP colleagues would be reluctant to back him.

“They are predicating it on the assumption that we haven’t been doing it. In the last nine years we’ve done it nine times; some of them have been confirmed some have not. I don’t see anything wrong with 60-vote margin with any of the two most significant jobs, appointments that the president has,” said Inhofe.

The Senate has never filibustered a Cabinet nominee. “I don’t trust this president to make the right appointment, I don’t think that Hagel is the right appointment,” Inhofe added.

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Fed’s Holdings of U.S. Gov’t Debt Hit Record $1,696,691,000,000; Up 257% Under Obama

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Photo Credit: AP In data released Thursday afternoon, the Federal Reserve revealed that its holdings of U.S. government debt had increased to an all-time record of $1,696,691,000,000 as of the close of business on Wednesday.

The Fed’s holdings of U.S. government debt have increased by 257 percent since President Barack Obama was first inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009, and the Fed is currently the single largest holder of U.S. government debt.

As of the end of November, according to the U.S. Treasury, entities in Mainland China owned about $1,170,100,000,000 in U.S. government debt, making China the largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt.

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Putin Turns Black Gold Into Bullion As Russia Out-Buys World

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Photo Credit: Alexsey DruginynWhen Vladimir Putin says the U.S. is endangering the global economy by abusing its dollar monopoly, he’s not just talking. He’s betting on it.

Not only has Putin made Russia the world’s largest oil producer, he’s also made it the biggest gold buyer. His central bank has added 570 metric tons of the metal in the past decade, a quarter more than runner-up China, according to IMF data compiled by Bloomberg. The added gold is also almost triple the weight of the Statue of Liberty.

“The more gold a country has, the more sovereignty it will have if there’s a cataclysm with the dollar, the euro, the pound or any other reserve currency,” Evgeny Fedorov, a lawmaker for Putin’s United Russia party in the lower house of parliament, said in a telephone interview in Moscow.

Gold, coveted by Russian rulers including Tsar Nicholas II and the Bolshevik leader whose forces assassinated him, Vladimir Lenin, has soared almost 400 percent in the period of Putin’s purchases. Central banks around the world have printed money to escape the global financial crisis, sapping investor appetite for dollars and euros and setting off a scramble for safety.

In 1998, the year Russia defaulted on $40 billion of domestic debt, it took as many as 28 barrels of crude to buy an ounce of gold, Bloomberg data show. That ratio tumbled to 11.5 by the time Putin first came to power a year later and in 2005, after it touched 6.5 — less than half what it is now — the president told the central bank to buy.

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Democrats, Republicans Appear No Closer To Averting Massive Federal Cuts Next Month (+video)

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Photo Credit: DonkeyHoteyCongressional Democrats and Republicans appeared far apart Sunday on a deal to avert $85 billion in federal spending reductions next month, with a top House Republican saying the cuts appear “inevitable.”

The automatic cuts, known as sequester, kick in March 1 because the parties have failed to agree on a less-drastic plan to cut the federal budget and deficit.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told “Fox News Sunday” that Democrats remain steadfast about tax increases being part of the deal but remain open to spending cuts. “What we do need is more revenue and new cuts,” the California congresswoman said.

Pelosi said Democrats were “not talking about raising taxes,” but want to close tax loopholes, including those for U.S. oil companies.

She also argued Democrats have made $1.6 trillion in cuts over the past two years and suggested the bigger solution to the country’s economic problems is job growth.

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